Chu He opened his eyes.
In the darkness, his eyes were clear and awake, staring motionlessly at the high ceiling of the bedroom.
Zhou Hui’s faint snores came from beside him, a sound he was very familiar with—the man was completely asleep.
It was not easy. Zhou Hui hadn’t fallen asleep in front of him for a long time. Ever since he was captured in H-City and brought to Beijing, or rather, ever since Zhou Hui had placed the golden ring lock on his lumbar vertebrae, he had never lost his conscious mind in front of him.
In the ink-like darkness, Chu He’s thoughts drifted slightly. He wondered if this vigilance was Zhou Hui learning from his mistakes and starting anew, or if it was a character trait deeply ingrained in his bone marrow from his origins as a low-level demonic creature from the Sea of Blood, forged in the endless daily slaughter and growth.
Either way, it was worthy of praise.
Chu He silently turned over, his fingers touching Zhou Hui’s chest, and with the ease of taking something from a pocket, he reached into his chest cavity.
Under his hand, muscles, blood vessels, and bones seemed to become intangible. His hand carefully searched through the internal organs, circling inside Zhou Hui’s body once, and he let out a mental “hmm?”.
Nowhere to be found… where could it be hidden?
Zhou Hui let out an unconscious grunt. Chu He immediately stopped, staring intently at his face. After a long moment of silence, he once again searched upwards along the abdominal organs until he very carefully touched the heart chamber, and his expression subtly changed.
—Hanging under the heart.
A thin layer of sweat broke out on Chu He’s forehead.
He took a deep breath, composed himself, and tried to steady his hand. The blood vessels below the heart chamber were intricate and complex. Chu He’s fingers moved upwards along the blood vessels, bit by bit. After touching the cold, smooth object, he didn’t pull it out immediately. Instead, he carefully felt around it, making sure all the knots were untied, before pinching the object with extremely slight force and shaking it gently.
Zhou Hui seemed uncomfortable and shifted on the pillow.
But it was alright, he didn’t wake up. It seemed that the combination of ice spring water and Asura flowers was indeed very potent. The Asura Path sometimes produced some useful things.
Chu He grabbed the cold object and, with a slight and quick pull, brought it out of the body—
It was a key.
Under the light from the window, the key was only the size of half a pinky finger, a common flat bronze key with extremely fine patterns carved on its surface, making it look like a part of some bronze ware, like a twisted nail or a wedge.
Chu He squinted and looked at it carefully for a while, thinking, Did Zhou Hui carve these intricate patterns himself, one stroke at a time? I never knew he had a hobby of carving things before.
Could it be that in these past few years, he’s been carving things in private to pass the time?
Chu He let out an almost inaudible sigh, put away the bronze key, and took out a common key of similar size from under the pillow, gently placing it in Zhou Hui’s chest cavity.
Although putting it in was easier than taking it out, Chu He still didn’t dare to put his hand near his heart again. He just hung it lightly on the upper left rib. This position was actually very close. As long as Zhou Hui didn’t idly play with his own heart, he wouldn’t discover that the key inside had been swapped for another one.
Chu He quietly lay back down. This movement might have made some noise. Zhou Hui stirred in his sleep. “…Old Four?”
Chu He didn’t answer.
Zhou Hui turned over and hugged him, burying his head in the crook of his neck and nuzzling, making a purring sound. After nuzzling for a long time, Chu He finally patted his sturdy back with a backhand and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Having a nightmare…” Zhou Hui said lazily. “Dreamed that you ran away with that idiot Fan Luo, leaving me at home with two kids…”
“Your kids wouldn’t stay at home obediently.”
Zhou Hui’s half-asleep consciousness was rather blurry. It took him a long while to understand, and he couldn’t help but chuckle. He pulled Chu He closer into his arms and was about to let himself fall back into a deep sleep when he suddenly remembered something and shot up. “Crap!”
“—What’s wrong?”
But Zhou Hui sat on the bed, staring at him without blinking, and didn’t speak for a long time.
Even Chu He, who was usually so calm, couldn’t help but change his expression under this gaze. After a moment of stalemate, he squinted his eyes and asked tentatively, “What happened?”
“I… didn’t pay the bill.” After a long pause, Zhou Hui finally murmured, his face full of a subtle expression. “I told them it was my treat tonight… I forgot to pay when I left.”
“…” A muscle twitched on Chu He’s forehead. “It’s fine. Let Zhang Shun pay.”
Zhang Shun didn’t pay. Yu Jingzhong did.
Before Yu Jingzhong came to the bar, he was in a very good mood.
In the afternoon, he had picked up Yan Lanyu from the hospital. The doctor had said that Yan Lanyu was recovering well, and the few prescriptions Zhou Hui had given were very effective. Although his soul couldn’t be fully nourished for a while, the damage to his internal organs had been greatly reduced. Then he had taken Yan Lanyu to buy things for living in Beijing, buying him clothes, shoes, socks, daily necessities, and a computer, until the car was full.
Although Deputy Chief Yu didn’t have the means to make money like those team leaders and was often ridiculed as a poor civil servant, he had at least saved up for a house in Beijing. The location of the house was not bad, between the Fourth and Fifth Ring Roads. The east-facing bedroom had been empty since he moved in, so it was perfect for Yan Lanyu to move into.
He drove Yan Lanyu home to settle his things, and wanted to call someone to help him download various software on his computer, but was stopped by Yan Lanyu before he could make the call. “It’s fine, I’ll do it myself.”
“Do you know how?” Yu Jingzhong was a little doubtful.
Yan Lanyu smiled and didn’t answer.
Although Yu Jingzhong was very skeptical about whether Yan Lanyu, who had grown up in the Tokyo esoteric sect, had ever gone to school and knew basic math, physics, and chemistry, he felt that Yan Lanyu was probably quite sensitive on the inside and didn’t want to hurt his feelings in any way, so he pretended to be very trusting and left the matter alone.
Deputy Chief Yu’s two-year-old daughter had been taken to a full-time daycare by a nanny. For lunch, the two of them ordered some takeout at home. Yan Lanyu’s daily mannerisms were very elegant, which showed that he had been trained. He was silent and very fast when he ate, making almost no sound, and put down his chopsticks within ten minutes.
Yu Jingzhong quickly swallowed the shredded pork with garlic sauce in his mouth. “Not eating more? Is it not to your taste?”
“No,” Yan Lanyu said. “I don’t eat much to begin with.”
Deputy Chief Yu rarely ate at home. When he occasionally did, he didn’t clean up afterwards, leaving the bowls in the kitchen sink for the nanny to wash. But today, he insisted on washing the dishes after the meal, pressing Yan Lanyu, who was asking if he needed help, onto the living room sofa, and said righteously, “What are you talking about! I love washing dishes. I wouldn’t trust anyone else to wash the dishes in my house!”
Then he turned around, rinsed each bowl under running water in the kitchen, and haphazardly stuffed them all into the cupboard.
Yan Lanyu sat properly on the living room sofa, neither looking around nor speaking, like a well-behaved and reserved guest. From Yu Jingzhong’s angle, he could see his profile, but he couldn’t tell what he was thinking at all. It was as if even the air around him was particularly quiet and silent.
Yu Jingzhong was very conflicted. He dried his hands on his apron in the kitchen while pondering. After pondering for a long time, the old man suddenly had a flash of inspiration. He immediately ran to peel an apple, cut it into pieces, stuck toothpicks in them, and brought it to the living room. “Apples are good for you. Eat some to fill your stomach for now. I’ll go buy a squab tomorrow to make soup for you.”
Yan Lanyu was stunned for a moment, took the fruit plate, and smiled at him.
—That smile kept Yu Jingzhong in a good mood for the rest of the day.
However, after arriving at the bar in the evening, he was in no mood for anything.
When he and Yan Lanyu arrived at the bar near Gongti, Zhang Shun was sitting bored, playing on his phone. Because of his injured hand, he wasn’t drinking, and in front of him was a bottle of Coca-Cola that cost eighty yuan at the bar. He paid no attention to the various scantily clad hot girls around him. Shenwan Tiansi, on the other hand, had already finished three eighty-yuan cokes. It was a wonder he didn’t need to go to the bathroom. At this moment, he was crunching on ice cubes while avidly studying a manga book and learning hand seals. “Hey! Shadow Clone Jutsu!”
Li Hu, on the other hand, was always happy. He was twisting his hips on the dance floor in ten-centimeter high heels, his mini skirt so short it looked like it was about to expose him at any moment. His seaweed-like curly hair swayed back and forth, attracting wild screams and cheers from the crowd.
Yu Jingzhong had a headache just looking at him. He held his forehead and asked, “Where are Zhou Hui and Feng Si?”
“Feng Si seemed to have come by just now, mixed a drink for Zhou Hui, and then they left together,” Shenwan Tiansi said without looking up. “Judging from Zhou Hui’s reaction, Feng Si probably mixed an aphrodisiac, not a drink, but it doesn’t matter. The key is who’s paying the bill today… Shadow Clone Jutsu!”
Zhang Shun pointed at Li Hu. “Woman.” He pointed at Shenwan Tiansi. “Child.” He pointed at himself. “Injured.” Then he looked up at Yu Jingzhong with expectant eyes.
“…” Yu Jingzhong said angrily, “So you guys called me seven or eight times on the way here just to find someone to pay the bill, right!”
Shenwan Tiansi didn’t look up. “—Shadow Clone Jutsu!”
Countless black lines appeared on Deputy Chief Yu’s head. He felt that since he was the leader of such a group of people, his career was hopeless. He might as well resign and go back to his hometown to be a local policeman. Maybe it would be easier to find a wife on a blind date in a small city.
“Don’t worry, we didn’t drink much. See, it’s all coke. Shenwan Tiansi didn’t even ask for much of that hundred-yuan-a-tube potato chips.” Seeing Deputy Chief Yu’s rage comic face, Zhang Shun pointed at the table and comforted him, “It’s just that Zhou Hui opened a bottle of whiskey. Here, there’s still a little left. Do you want a glass?”
—Actually, Yu Jingzhong wasn’t thinking about money. He was thinking about deeper confusion and distress. But as soon as Zhang Shun said that, his eyes fell on the whiskey bottle on the table. The very iconic shape and trademark instantly hit the sensitive nerves of the poor civil servant.
The next second, Deputy Chief Yu’s roar shot straight into the sky. “Zhou Hui, I f*ck your sister—!”
Yan Lanyu sat silently on the side, watching. When Shenwan Tiansi formed the hand seal for the eighth time and shouted, “Shadow Clone Jutsu!” he suddenly said, “…The seal is wrong.”
“It’s drawn like this in the manga,” Shenwan Tiansi said, oblivious to everything around him, just staring at the manga book in a daze.
“The clone jutsu is not one of the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, but the ‘third element’ under the four symbols of the Kuji-in. You can try changing the finishing posture to the outer lion seal,” Yan Lanyu said. “However, I suggest you don’t try it here, because your elemental power is sufficient, and you are from the esoteric sect. If you really summon dozens of clones, it will be difficult to clean up.”
Shenwan Tiansi looked up.
He had seen Yan Lanyu from a distance a few times when he was hospitalized, but at that time, the latter was in the ICU for emergency treatment. Through the glass wall and oxygen mask, he couldn’t see what he looked like clearly. This was the first time he had faced Yan Lanyu face to face, so close that he could even see his slightly drooping, dense eyelashes clearly.
“You are…”
Yan Lanyu casually made a great vajra wheel mudra gesture, smiled, and nodded.
Although the young Onmyoji was dressed plainly, his temperament was calm and collected, his gaze gentle, and amidst the gentleness, there was a sharpness that even ghosts and gods would not dare to approach. His demeanor was handsome and difficult to describe.
The manga book in Shenwan Tiansi’s hand fell with a thud, but he didn’t pick it up. Instead, he raised his hand and pressed it tightly to his chest. “I…” he said in a daze, “…I’ve found true love.”
